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Larded Chickens

A roasted chicken larded with strips of fat salt pork, served with a gravy of boiled giblets and browned flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and pork match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,417 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓

Larded Chickens

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Draw, wash, and wipe the chickens thoroughly.

  2. Truss the chickens as for roasting.

  3. Lard the breasts with strips of fat salt pork in regular lines, an inch apart.

Roast

  1. Lay the chickens, breast side up, in a dripping pan with ½ cup of boiling water.

  2. Roast the chickens, basting often, for about 12 minutes per pound.

Make the gravy

  1. Keep the chickens warm while you mince the boiled giblets.

  2. Stir the minced giblets into the gravy with a thickening of browned flour.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Chicken + porktop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,417 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  2. Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  4. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Chicken + flourtop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,559 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

Chicken and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,559 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Chickens
Provide the main meat, which cooks through during roasting and becomes tender.
Fat salt pork
Lardons add moisture and richness to the lean breast meat as they melt during roasting.
Brown flour
Thickens the gravy and adds a toasted, nutty flavour from browning.
Boiled giblets
Add savoury depth to the gravy once minced and stirred in.

The step that matters

Basting often during roasting. Regular basting moistens the surface and helps the skin brown evenly while the juices keep the meat from drying out.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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